How to keep bees for profit/Chapter 21

Cuprins

Sources from which bees gather their honey are many and unexpected,
and often in a locality that would be considered
unfavorable, they gather a surplus
that is simply surprising. It is not even
necessary to locate in a section where the
presence of honey-secreting blossoms are
noticeably abundant, for there are many
plants seldom observed that yield to the beekeeper
a goodly supply of honey.

Not every flower that blooms produces
honey, and many a humble blossom likely
to be overlooked will upon careful examination
prove to be a most prolific source of revenue.
Nor is it advisable to plant special
crops such as alsike, clover, buckwheat, and
other plants primarily for the honey they will
produce, but rather depend upon the bloom
that is always present in greater or less quantity.
We would not gainsay the fact that the
beekeeper is favored who is located in sections
where honey-producing plants are cultivated,
but, even so, a close scrutiny of the
flora of any locality will reveal the presence
of many a source upon which the busy bees will
levy a handsome tribute.

LET no one imagine from the foregoing
chapters of this work that beekeeping is a
royal road to wealth, for there is a vast amount
of experience and hard work demanded to
make it a success, but it can be said in all
truthfulness, that for the amount of time and
application given to this most interesting department
of rural life, the returns are far
greater than in almost any other field of
endeavor.

To be out in the great outdoors, amid the
hum of these marvellously active and wonderfully
intelligent creatures, is compensation
enough in itself for the labor we give to them.
But taking a more practical and perhaps
sordid view of the subject, there is no reason
in the world why any man or woman of intelligence
may not, after several seasons' experience,
make the bee a sole means of livelihood,
and in the doing have their work confined
to the most delightful months of the year.
The practical work in the bee yard will be
compassed between March and November,
while the rest of the year may be devoted to
disposing of the crop or in other avenues
of congenial endeavor.

Beekeeping has been called the poetry of
agriculture, and certainly there is no more
noble profession on earth, nor one in which
the exercise of skill and experience will bring
a more liberal income for men and women
who give their time and effort to its pursuit.
As we stand amid the hives and hear the
merry hum of its many thousand denizens,
there will come to us again and again a feeling
of contentment in the knowledge that
their multiplied efforts are in our behalf; and
when the season draws near for the gathering
of the harvest of golden nectar, how proud
we are to know that owing to our skill
and direction, the busy little people have succeeded
in gathering far more nectar than if
left to their own inclinations. The greatest
of the world's writers have written of these
wonderful little creatures; how infinitely better
is it to know and care for them and realize
they are ours, and have wrought to make us
happier and wealthier.